Nora POV
"MIRA, NO!"
I lunge for my daughter, but she's already running. Her little pink pajamas flash through the darkness as she races toward the guesthouse door.
Toward them.
My wolf is howling inside my head, a sound of pure agony. The mate bond—that sacred connection the Moon Goddess blessed us with—is screaming. It feels like someone's ripping my heart out through my chest.
Killian and Vanessa break apart. Through the window, I see their heads snap toward the door.
I'm still frozen in the clearing. My legs won't move. My brain won't work. This can't be happening. This can't be real.
The guesthouse door flies open.
Mira barrels inside, squealing with joy. "MOMMY V! You came back!"
Mommy V.
Not Mommy. Mommy V.
My four-year-old daughter has another mommy, and I didn't even know.
Vanessa appears in the doorway, wrapped in a sheet. Her red hair is messy. Her lipstick is smeared. She's smiling like she just won the lottery.
"Oh, baby girl!" Vanessa crouches down and Mira throws her arms around her neck. "I missed you so much! Did you have fun with Nora today?"
Nora. Not "your mom." Not "Mommy." Just... Nora.
"She made me eat vegetables," Mira complains, her face buried in Vanessa's shoulder. "And she wouldn't let me have ice cream before bed. You're way nicer."
Each word is a dagger in my chest.
Killian steps into the doorway behind them. His shirt is unbuttoned. His hair is messy from Vanessa's hands. He sees me standing in the clearing, and his face goes hard.
Not guilty. Not sorry. Just annoyed that I caught him.
"Nora." His Alpha voice rolls out—the command that makes other wolves obey. "Go home."
But I can't move. I can't breathe. I can only stare at my daughter in another woman's arms.
"Mira," I whisper. My voice sounds broken. "Baby, come here. Come to Mommy."
Mira's head pops up from Vanessa's shoulder. She looks at me with those big gray eyes—Killian's eyes. There's no warmth in them. No love. Just confusion.
"Why?" she asks.
That one word destroys me.
"Because I'm your mother." My voice cracks. "I'm your mommy, sweetheart. Not her. Me."
Mira's little face scrunches up. "But Daddy said Mommy V is my real mommy. You're just the lady who lives with us."
The world tilts sideways.
"Killian." I can barely say his name. "What did you tell her?"
He has the decency to look uncomfortable for exactly two seconds. Then his face goes cold again.
"We should discuss this privately," he says. "You're causing a scene."
A scene. I'm causing a scene because I object to my husband cheating on me with my daughter calling his mistress Mommy.
Something inside me doesn't break. It transforms. Changes. Becomes something new and sharp and dangerous.
I step forward into the light from the guesthouse. Vanessa's smile gets bigger.
"Oh, Nora," she purrs. "Don't look so shocked. You had to know this was coming. Killian and I have been together since before he married you."
My stomach drops. "What?"
"Six years, actually." Vanessa adjusts the sheet around herself. She's loving this. "He only married you because his father forced him to pick a mate. You were convenient. Boring. Easy to control."
I look at Killian. Waiting for him to deny it. To tell her she's lying.
He doesn't.
"It's true," he says flatly. "My father wanted grandchildren. You were... adequate for that purpose."
Adequate. Five years of marriage. One dangerous pregnancy. Childbirth that nearly killed me. All of it because I was adequate.
"But Mira," I whisper. "She's our daughter. How could you—"
"Oh, sweetie." Vanessa laughs. It's a cruel sound. "I've been raising Mira since she was two. Every day while you were napping or cooking or doing whatever boring things you do, I was here. Playing with her. Reading to her. Showing her what a real mother looks like."
My knees almost give out. Two years. Mira's been coming here for two years.
"Daddy says when I turn five, Mommy V is going to live with us forever," Mira announces happily. "And you're going to leave. He promised."
The mate bond in my chest is dying. I can feel it withering like a plant without water. The pain is so intense I want to scream.
Killian steps forward. His eyes are cold. "Nora, be reasonable. You've done your job. You gave me an heir. Now it's time to step aside gracefully. I'll give you money. A house somewhere far away. You can start over."
Start over. Like five years of my life meant nothing.
"No," I hear myself say.
Killian's eyebrows go up. "Excuse me?"
"I said no." My voice is getting stronger. My wolf is rising up inside me, finally fighting back. "You don't get to throw me away like garbage. I'm your mate. Your wife. The Luna of this pack."
"You were never really Luna," Vanessa says sweetly. "Everyone knows that. You're just the placeholder until I could take my rightful position."
"Mommy V is going to be the best Luna ever!" Mira claps her hands. "Daddy said so!"
I look at my daughter—this little girl I grew inside my body, who I sang to every night, who I would die for—and she looks at me like I'm a stranger. Like I'm the intruder in her life.
That's when I realize the truth.
I already lost her. Maybe I never really had her at all.
"Fine," I say quietly.
Killian looks surprised. "Fine?"
"You want her?" I point at Vanessa. "Take her. You want to make her Luna? Do it. You want to erase me from Mira's life? Go ahead. I'm done fighting for people who don't want me."
I turn to walk away.
"Wait," Killian says. Something in his voice sounds wrong. Panicked. "You can't just leave. We need to discuss terms. Arrangements. You can't—"
"Watch me."
I start walking toward the forest. My wolf is pushing me forward, screaming at me to run, to get away from this poisoned place.
Behind me, I hear Killian curse. "Nora, I command you as your Alpha to stop!"
The Alpha command hits me like a wave. It should freeze me in place. Every wolf in the pack has to obey their Alpha's direct orders.
But I keep walking.
Because something's happening inside me. Something I didn't know was possible. The command slides off my skin like water. Like it has no power over me at all.
How?
"NORA!" Killian's voice is furious now. "You don't have permission to leave! I didn't dismiss you!"
I stop walking. Turn around slowly.
All three of them are staring at me—Killian with shock, Vanessa with fury, Mira with confusion.
"You know what's funny?" I say. My voice sounds different. Stronger. "I've been hiding who I am for five years. Making myself small and weak and boring because you said that's what you needed. But I'm not weak. I never was."
"What are you talking about?" Killian demands.
I smile. It's not a nice smile.
"You wanted to know why your pack's security system is the best in the region? Why no one's ever successfully hacked your files? Why you keep getting offers from tech companies wanting to partner with you?"
Vanessa's eyes narrow. "What—"
"Because I built your entire security infrastructure. Me. The 'boring' wife who can barely use a computer." I laugh, and it sounds a little crazy. "I'm Phantom_N0va, Killian. The hacker you tried to hire last month for two million dollars? That's me."
The silence is deafening.
Killian's face goes white. "You're lying."
"Am I? Check your phone. The encryption code on your private files. The one you could never figure out who installed it." I recite the twenty-digit code from memory. "I did that. Three years ago, when I realized you were probably cheating."
His hand flies to his phone. His fingers shake as he checks.
His face tells me everything.
"Oh, Moon Goddess," he breathes. "It's true."
Vanessa looks between us, confused. "What does this mean?"
I meet Killian's eyes. "It means you threw away the woman who's been protecting you this whole time. It means you're about to find out what happens when Phantom_N0va stops being nice."
I turn and walk into the forest.
This time, no one tries to stop me.
But as I disappear into the trees, I hear Mira's small voice:
"Daddy? Why is Nora scary now?"